The disaster claimed the lives of some 384 people and left around 500 injured after the tsunami hit the coastline with 3-meter (10 foot) high waves, the spokesman of Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency said on Saturday.

He added that the number of victims may further rise. The announced death toll only includes the data from Palu, but the casualties in nearby Donggala Regency are currently unknown.

Harrowing images have come from Indonesia, showing the scale of destruction that the Sulawesi quake inflicted on the towns of Palu and Donggala, located close to the epicenter of the quake that wrought havoc on the island on Friday afternoon.

The death toll from Indonesia's earthquake and tsunami disaster has risen to 832, officials have confirmed.

The national disaster mitigation agency warned the figure could climb higher as the affected area on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is bigger than initially thought.

Many people were reported trapped in the rubble of buildings brought down in the 7.5 magnitude earthquake which struck on Friday and triggered tsunami waves as high as six metres (20 feet).

Almost all the deaths have been recorded in Palu, two days after the waves slammed into the city of 350,000.

Eleven deaths had been recorded in the nearby region of Donggala to the the north of Palu, agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

An aerial view of part of the city destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in Palu

"The death is believed to be still increasing since many bodies were still under the wreckage while many have not able to be reached," he said.

He added that the access to Donggala, as well as the towns of Sigi and Boutong, is limited and there are no comprehensive reports from those areas.

The new toll comes after Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla said the final number of dead could be in the "thousands".

Risa Kusuma, a 35-year-old mother comforting her feverish baby boy at an evacuation centre in Palu, said: "Every minute an ambulance brings in bodies.

"Clean water is scarce. The minimarkets are looted everywhere."

Hundreds of stricken people have been looting supermarkets and petrol stations amid an acute shortage of water, food and fuel.

Residents were seen scrambling over broken glass and through broken-down barricades at a supermarket in the centre and making off with plastic bin bags full of goods including nappies, crisps and gas canisters.

© Antara Foto/Rolex Malaha via REUTERS
Residents outside a badly damaged shopping mall following Friday's tsunami in Palu

One man shouted: "There has been no aid, we need to eat. We don't have any other choice, we must get food."

Rescuers have been trying to reach trapped victims in collapsed buildings after the tsunami hit the two central Indonesian cities - sweeping away buildings with massive waves.

People could be heard calling out from the eight-story Roa-Roa Hotel which toppled in the disaster.

"I can still hear the voices of the survivors screaming for help while inspecting the compound," said Muhammad Syaugi, the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency.

The previous official death toll from the earthquake and tsunami was reported at 405, with all fatalities coming from Palu.

More than 1,000 prisoners escaped from devastated detention facilities after an earthquake and tsunami struck Indonesia. The death toll of the disaster is expected to reach 2,000 as rescue operations continue. A powerful quake hit the region of Sulawesi on Friday, triggering a huge tsunami and wreaking havoc across communities. Indonesia's Directorate General of Corrections said that inmates escaped from three over-capacity detention facilities.

According to reports, between 1,200 to 1,400 prisoners are now missing from jails. Ministry of Justice official Sri Puguh Utami said the prisoners had run for their lives "because they feared they would be affected by the earthquake."

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